Looking to concentrate on his mayoral campaign in 2013, Councilman Eric Garcetti said he will give up his post as Council President on Jan. 2.
Garcetti, who has been the council president since 2005,said he had been planning to step down from the council;s top job for some time so he can concentrate on the race for mayor.
He is introducing a motion in council today to nominate Counclman Herb Wesson to take over his job and for Councilman Ed Reyes to become president pro tem, to fill the post vacated last week by Councilwoman Jan Perry. Perry also is running for mayor.
Counm\ciman Dennis Zine, who is running for city controller in 2013, has said he is planning to give up his post of assistant prseident pro tem.
The council president helps set the agenda for council meetings, appoints council committees and serves as mayor when Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is out of the city.

The waiting room inside the Sun Valley Health Center was bursting with patients Thursday afternoon, many of whom likely would go without medical care if the center wasn’t close to their homes. Susan Abram in the Daily News,

For Samm Austria, 32, who has just started to visit the clinic, the convenience is immeasurable.

“I wouldn’t be happy at all if this wasn’t here,” said Austria, whose three children also see doctors at the clinic. “Everything here runs so smoothly, better than other places I’ve been to. They should have more of these.”

With a new study out that shows the dangers of secondhand smoke from neighbors in residential buildings, Los Angeles County health officials are hoping more cities will ban smoking inside apartments. Susan Abram in the Daily News.

Preliminary results from a study released Wednesday by the county health department show that tobacco smoke particles can seep into the units of nonsmokers through air ducts, electrical cracks, and under doorways and can reach “significant levels equal to and exceeding those of a smoky bar or casino.”

“California is the largest smoke-free zone in the nation, but the bans don’t protect children,” said Dr. Jonathan Winickoff, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Seeking to bring green spaces to the city’s most park-poor neighborhoods, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced plans Wednesday to build 50 new pocket parks around Los Angeles over the next two years. Dakota Smith in the Daily News.

“Residents will have a new reason and resource to enjoy their communities,” said Villaraigosa, speaking about the pocket park plan at a Los Angeles Business Council event on Wednesday.

The city is facing a shrinking pool of available space to develop parks, said Deputy Mayor Sarah Sheahan. While some large, privately funded parks are still planned — such as the Hollywood Freeway Park, which would rise over the 101 Freeway — the city no longer has the ability to transform big swaths of land.